Nov. 13, 2012

With a Thanksgiving feast like this one, you won't even miss the meat. / Matthew Mead/AP

Written by

Michele Kayal

Associated Press

Vegetarians have long known a Thanksgiving secret the rest of us are reluctant to admit — it’s all about the side dishes.

Think about it. Once you’ve taken the obligatory slice of turkey, a dutiful spoonful of gravy and maybe haggled a bit over the dark meat, what you really want is more stuffing. More mashed anything. More syrupy sweet potatoes. And definitely more pie.

“Absence of turkey can be a very positive thing,” says New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, whose coming book, “VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00,” is dedicated to learning to make do with less meat. “Most people have roughly 360 dinners a year that have ‘absence of turkey.’ We eat it on Thanksgiving because we’re supposed to.”